Lawyers for the plaintiffs are taking a surprising approach in the suit against Craig Kent, two administrators and three doctors he hired as well as the Board of Visitors, UVA’s Physicians Group and the state. They claim Kent's team violated the Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO — determined to boost profits, UVA rankings and their personal financial prospects by committing fraud.
"Leadership had developed a strategy around increasing profits, increasing the national rankings, rolling back safety protocols designed to protect patients, retaliatory efforts against any professionals within the UVA medical system who stood up and complained," says Gladstone Jones, one of two lawyers who drafted the complaint.
He says four doctors suffered serious professional harm as a result of Kent’s approach to management.
"They were approached by this group of leaders and told they were being cited for unprofessional conduct. Letters were written by HR and put in theirfiles. Promotions were beyond reach because of these acts. Titles were stripped. Expenses for conferences were taken away.
And attorney Lee Bowers says UVA inflated bills for surgery by claiming two senior doctors were needed in the operating room for cases that were not that complicated.
"It leads to increasing revenue when there’s absolutely no need based on case complexity to have two attendings, but it’s well-known that that is a way to scam Medicare."
He adds that other fraudulent tactics were used to cut costs and boost the bottom line.
"There are patients who had unnecessary procedures and people who went blind in the face of a year or more of warnings that this was going to happen if they continued to cut out the patient safety mechanisms in order to maximize financial goals."
And the suit alleges Kent and his colleagues hired doctors who were willing to go along with their strategy, even though they were not qualified to do surgeries.
"Anywhere that you could hire someone who would implement the strategy of up-coding and double-billing, that happened. Sixteen of 21 chairs were replaced, so we’re talking about completely wiping out all of UVA’s leadership in the space of four years so that Kent could install loyalists into those positions."
Joining the suit, two women whose husbands died after treatment at UVA.
The university said it does not comment on pending litigation, but Craig Kent told Charlottesville’s daily newspaper that the lawsuit was “absurd, baseless, and motivated by greed.” In a written statement, he said he and his team were focused on delivering exceptional and high-quality healthcare to Virginians and beyond.
The plaintiffs have not said how much they will ask in damages if they prevail in court. Legal experts say the university will likely try to have the case dismissed.
If it’s unsuccessful, it might prefer to settle the matter rather than risk the release of records from an internal investigation that may have promoted Kent’s resignation.
